Form 2210 TY 2021 error

[PJA5]

How do I avoid using that form when Turbo Tax keeps making me correct “ the error”. I don’t even do estimated taxes. I am a retired teacher.

[babyrd55]

Hi PJA5. It's a bit hard to give a specific answer with no knowledge of your tax situation or information on what the error is, but here are some thoughts:

First, the unspecified error that you reference might be a checkbox needing to be filled in on the form. You can try just deleting the form. Assuming you're using the desktop version, that's one of the boxes at the bottom of the form. If the form is actually needed, TurboTax will either not let you delete it, or it will just automatically come back again with the same situation.

Second, while you say that you don't "do" estimated taxes, respectfully, that does mean that they are not due in some circumstances. To oversimplify a bit, if (A) you owe taxes, and (B) you had no withholding (seems likely since you indicate that you're retired), and (C) you made no estimated payments, and (D) the amount left in from 2020 to apply to 2021 taxes is insufficient to cover 2021 taxes, then the form will most likely pop up. It should not compute a penalty if the amount due is under $1,000, but it needs to be computed to determine that no penalty is due. (Note that one of the form issues here, however, is that it is failing to give 2021 credit on form 2210 for 2020 tax overpayments applied to 2021 rather than refunded.)

You can also take a look at the actual 2210 and the little flowchart and checkboxes on the first page, and see if you can determine what may be causing the form to appear. If it still appears that the form is coming up in error, then you can contact the TurboTax help desk to see if they can assist.

Good luck.

[ricbor]

Form 2210AI still has problems - I think this may be a new one.  TT Premier has inserted "0s" into lines 16a, b and c of Form 2210AI.  Of course the zero values don't change any calculations; the problem arises when I run error check.  It tells me that these lines must be blank, but the program won't allow me to delete the entered 0 values.  And as long as anything is entered into line 16, it stops me from filing the return electronically!  Why does the Error Check prevent electronic filing when there is a zero entered but not when the entry is blank???  Isn't there some way that Intuit's technical people can get these Form 2210 problems fixed before filing time??

[TxUser2014b]

This is a copy of the post I made (apparently) in the wrong section/forum:

Form 2210AI calculation error for first 3 quarters

I have reported this problem 3 times to TTax support but they insist there is no problem.  So I manually printed the form from the IRS web site along with the "Qualified Dividends and Capital Gain Tax Worksheet".  This form must be used when it's appropriate (in my case) AFTER the quarterly values are annualized with the appropriate multiplier (4, 2.4, & 1.5).  The problem(s):

1. Quarterly entries for long term capital gains are not annualized resulting in an overstatement of the tax on line 14.

2. IT APPEARS that the quarterly values for qualified dividend income are being ignored but I cannot actually confirm this.

The overstatement of the quarterly tax payments due are causing an underpayment penalty to be computed when no actual penalty is due.  This error can potentially affect all users that have LTCG and/or QDI income.  Note that the year end (12/31/21) calculations are correct so you have to examine the actual quarterly values on form 2210AI to detect this problem.  

I also sent 3 files to Turbotax support which clearly documented the error but I too received the standard useless email stating that the trouble report was closed and that there is no error.  I even tried to get a phone number for someone at Intuit headquarters that might actually care about these problems but that also seems to be impossible.

[TxUser2014b]

This is intended for the user ID Xuser's "shortcut" calculation:  You are ignoring the zero percent tax rate for some LTCG and QDI.  Use the worksheet to get the correct answer.

[Tax4fp]

As I noted earlier in this forum (and in others reporting similar issue), there is a way to get 2021 TT to correctly calculate line 14 (a)-(c) if you have any long term capital gains in the first three periods.  Simply enter the combined total of cumulative CG/QD into the inputs for QD and enter zeros in the LT CG boxes.  TT will then properly scale the total CG/QD by the respective period factors and produce the correct values in line 14 (a)-(c) that TT uses to determine whether an underpayment has occurred.  The specific breakdown between CG and QD is never shown in either Form 2210 or Form 2210AI that get filed when forms are printed and the IRS accepted a return that was e-filed with this tweak.  Use of this option should be considered if TT calculates that an underpayment is due in order to eliminate or reduce a penalty that TT has over estimated because of their failure to properly implement the IRS requirements in Form 2210AI.

Since it is less than 2 weeks until 4/15/22 due date,  TT will likely never fix their screwups in 2021 Forms 2210 and 2210AI to perform the proper calculation (s) per IRS requirements, even though they did it correctly in prior years, so consider using the workaround to get the correct result the IRS wants.

[CarissaM]

Have you ran the manual update on the software as described here? @Tax4fp

[Tax4fp]

@CarissaM 

Yes!  I have updated using both the manual method that you link to and via the Check for Updates that appears each time program is opened and TT continues to incorrectly calculate line 14 (a)-(c) in Form 2210 AI and fails to include refund carryover into line 11 of Form 2210 as I and multiple users on this site in multiple forums have noted.  In my case the error in line 14(a) is around $2000 because TT fails to scale capital gains as IRS requires for this calculation. Multiple people on this site have also tried contacting TT help lines and gotten nothing accomplished to correct these errors.  If you really want to help, you should contact the TT programmers and tell them to fix these screwups, rather than just asking users if we have updated TT .  A simple search on the community forums for issues with 2021 Form 2210-will show you that everyone is dissatisfied with TT's failure to fix these problems, and why users like me have suggested workarounds to overcome the multiple TT errors in 2021 Form 2210 and 2210AI.  

[CarissaM]

We are limited as to what we can see here in this public forum. Please follow the instructions here to contact us by phone, so we can screen share to look into this further. @Tax4fp

[ricbor]

After repeated updates to the software, it appears that my problem with Form 2210AI line 16 has finally been fixed.  However, it required the most recent software update AND deleting the existing Form 2210AI and starting with a clean copy.  

[Tax4fp]

Latest update on 4/7/22 appears to fix the Form 2210 error with 2020 refund to be applied as credit for 2021.  After this update, the amount of this refund credit increased Form 2210 line 11(a) by the amount of this carryover credit.  However, the latest TT update still does not fix the errors in Form 2210AI line 14 (a)-(c) that result in incorrect tax calculation whenever long term capital gains occur in any of the first three payment periods.

[CD391]

Form 2210 says my Withhold posted is $161 taht is an error.   $4000 is the correct amount

[TxUser2014b]

@CarissaM  cc @Tax4fp 

I followed your procedure 3 times (02/26, 03/15, & I think 03/17) tickets number [phone number removed], [phone number removed], [phone number removed], & [phone number removed]).  I also supplied via "Send file to TTax" 3 files which clearly showed that quarterly LTCG entries were not being annualized.  I received the standard "There is no error" response.  I have since filed a complaint with the FTC and the BBB.  I have received a response from Intuit corporate and a subsequent phone conversion with a lady from TTax support (another 2 files sent to document the errrors).  I figure the fix for this problem takes about 10 minutes and 1 to 3 lines of code, or, they could just copy the code for the QDI row since it is being annualized properly.

[TxUser2014b]

@Tax4fpI have been informed that the fix for the LTCG annualization error should be out within the next 2 to 3 weeks.  I used the QDI workaround and went ahead and filed my taxes since I didn't  have any faith that the problem would be fixed before the 18th and it didn't seem to be worthwhile to file an exension. 

[Tax4fp]

Update on 4/20/2022 finally fixed the tax calculation error in Form 2210AI line 14 (a)-(c) where LTCG was not being scaled each period as IRS required for these calculations.  Too late to help anyone who filed on or before due date for 2021 federal taxes.